Will we be dangerously distracted in the future? Safety: There’s an app for that

As technology churns out the convenience tools, we can’t help but use them — even when we’re behind the wheel.
Angel Greiling Keane’s story for Bloomberg recently pointed out that there were 3.092 deaths in 2010 — 9.4 percent of all road fatalities — related to distracted drivers. That’s according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Admininstration.

Lots of things distract us, of course. There are cell phones, computers plus food and drink. The problem is, as Keane notes in her story, that the technology just keeps on coming — and much of it may be coming to a car near you.

“Audible Facebook updates and steering-wheel controls that let drivers buy movie tickets and check stock prices went on display at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week,” stated Keane.

All the car companies are working to keep up. Keane interviewed a Toyota official who said, “We realize that separating the driver from their mobile device is virtually impossible now.”

Hopefully, it won’t take an accident for that separation to occur.

Let’s face it, we’re a distracted society. Multitasking becomes increasingly common. Watching TV is no longer an individual act. Now some people monitor texts and tweets when they’re not online — all with the TV blaring in the background.

Writing in Response magazine, Jackie Jones refers to a recent study by Razorfish and Yahoo: “80 percent of U.S. respondents say they regularly use their cell phones while watching TV.”

Since we’re increasingly used to doing two things at once, it seems natural enough to want to pile another function or two on — even when we’re talking about manuevering a 3,500-pound machine across the streets at speeds exceeding 70 miles an hour. Not a good idea — for the driver or the person traveling nearby — when, at 7 mph, you can travel 105 feet in one second.

Technology Boat offers some gadgets that might help on the safety side:

If you’re worried about teens or elderly parents at the wheel, there’s Motolingo’s Motoriety Pro app, which sends data to your smartphone on driving performance (heavy braking and accelerating, for example) and also lets you know when the driver is texting or on the phone. There’s a “Geofence” feature that alerts you if the vehicle strays outside a given perimeter.

If that’s too much like Big Brother for you, the company also offers Motocarma, an app that lets you know when the car’s engine light goes on, or the fuel is low, or a speed threshold has been breached — things some distracted drivers may not notice themselves. ($60-$100, www.motolingo.com)

For about $35 per year per family, you can install DriveSafe, an app that reads incoming text and e-mail messages out loud in the car, with an option to respond, hands-free. You can choose from several languages, and male or female voices. (www.drivesafe.ly)

Apps that might please urban drivers include Innix Traffic’s Trip Predictor, which provides arrival estimates given present road conditions; Spotfinder, which locates the nearest parking spots; Parking Meter, which counts down the minutes left on your meter; and Carfinder (where’d you park again?).

Author: Steve Tarter

Born in England, raised in Boston, I'm a Midwestern transplant who's called Peoria home for the past 40 years. Married with four grown children, I enjoy journalism, film noir and radio drama. As the song goes, I like coffee; I like tea. Former president of the Apollo Theater in Downtown Peoria, I'm looking for a new raison d'etre.
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